Capacity building key to higher GDP growth: Kamal

The government should improve its capacity to help accelerate economic growth of the country, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said yesterday.

“Our efficiency should be properly utilised,” he said after a meeting of the cabinet committee on public purchase at the cabinet division yesterday.

The untapped potential of the economy should be explored and inclusive growth ensured, he said, adding that the government’s plans and policies are helping the economy grow faster, which has been praised by the whole world.

Bangladesh has the potential to be a bigger economy than Singapore and Malaysia by 2025-30, he said.

At the meeting, the cabinet committee gave a go-ahead to eight procurement proposals. One of them was to construct 36 cyclone shelters in Patuakhali district at a cost of Tk 240.32 crore and 50 cyclone shelters in Pirojpur at Tk 319.50 crore.

The second phase of the urban primary health care service delivery project worth Tk 39.73 crore also also approved.

The government will construct 50 multipurpose disaster shelter centres in Chattogram. Twenty-five of them will cost Tk 103.75 crore while the rest Tk 107.05 crore.

Earlier, the cabinet committee on economic affairs approved two projects: “Further development of Cumilla University” involving Tk 1,655.50 crore and the “Procurement of equipment for 329 municipal offices countrywide”.

The Dock Yard Engineering Workshop of Bangladesh Navy will implement the procurement project, the minister said.